DBA- Alans vs Visigoths

DBA? Yes, you heard that right. The guys have been humouring Kent and I and by playing Impetus so time to repay the favour. I haven't played DBA in a couple of years- I got fed up with "Geometry Wars" and micromanaging angles and play the "game"rather than the "wargame."

Any how, lately the guys have been playing lots of the new version so it was time to give it a try- vs Simon and his Visigoths. I like the visigoths and have had fun using them vs Ian in the past (I've a 28mm version waiting to be 0paitned at present). So the only 15mm army I could find was my Alans so it was light horse + knights vs massed bow, warband and cavalry.


Game 1
I got to defend so made it nice and cav friendly- despite the new terrain rules which  I liked.

 My knights slip over to support my light horse vs the cavalry.

 Blades now follow up- and get into trouble vs warband.

 My light horse have made a hole in the enemy line.

 Can we take advantage? Hell yes!

 From 3 -1 down we come back to  in 4-3.

Game 2: Simon aka "Give me a water feature damn it" living up to his name! My plan? Try to cross the river on the left and see what happens. Okay so not much of a plan. 

 Well, 2 units got across- then his bow kept my reinforcements at bay. MY blades have charged across the ford and follow up into arband- not sure I am used to the new blade follow up rules.

 Simon reinforces vs my badly outnumbered light cav.

 End game- now that is what I call surrounded! 5-1 to Simon.

 Game 3- Simon got to defend again. Hmm, I detect a theme.

 Our war correspondent was killed early on in this debacle. I managed to get 2x knights shot full of arrows before they could retreat out of range then Simon unleashed his warband. 4-2 to Simon. 

Thoughts?
I enjoyed the games. It was fun and less micromanaging than previous versions. I liked the longer ranges for bows and  movement  but think a 30" board is even more necessary than ever before- and I've been a bg fan of 30" boards for along, long time. So I think I might play the odd game in future.

Craig

DBA- Alans Battle Reports

I managed 3 games of DBA at the club tonight, using the Alans vs different armies.

Game 1: 3-4 Loss vs my Nemisis, Tim and his Trojans.
3-1 up with knights and somehow I rolled 2 1s on combat dice to lose 2 elements, including my general and he came back to take it 3-4- much to his amusement.



The light horse zip round the flank.


Chariots turn to face the threat.


The Trojan chariots are in trouble- 2 destroyed but alas my knights impale themselves on the wall of spear backed up by psiloi! And thanks to a round of stella dice rolling the knights die, including the general.


Where did I go wrong?


Endgame- 4-3 to the Trojans.



Game 2: 4-2 Vs Tony (Mid Imperial Romans)
Again I got to defend and had pretty open terrain. Tony defended a hill and we jostled for position but eventually I was able to get my knights into action vs his infantry. Most amusing moment was when his line crumbled- all except for the artillery! which bravely recoiled my troops.








A good going hill, was not going to stand in our way! B


Game 3: 4-2 vs Dave with Macedonians
Again close but I eventually turned his pike's flank and rolled up his line.






My light horse overlap and kill the enemy light horse.


The highlight was killing an elephant with my light horse (in the next turn)

Three good fun games. The light horse can be handful but are definitely fragile and once we got into combats I never felt sure that I was going to be in control of the outcome. The army hits hard but you are never quite sure what is gong to happen next. The chaotic light horse zipping everywhere definitely suit my style of play and can cause problems for defences, if I get to defend and dictate terrain as I did tonight!

Christchurch DBA Comp

Yesterday the DBA competition was held in Christchurch. There were 16 players, 7 of them from down here in Timaru.

I'd like to report victory but alas my Sassanids got their butts handed to them in 4 out of 5 games.

Going into the comp I was concerned that the 2x horde elements might prove to be a bit weak and that I lacked bad going troops (only a single element of auxillia and psiloi were going to have to do a lot!) and this was to prove to be the case. I seriously missed having lots of auxillia. I got to attack a lot and most terrain was quite congested so my cavalry rarely got to use their mobility to full effect.

Game 1: 2-4 vs Hamish (II/ 37 Pathians).
What was I thinking- deploying my elephant and horde together across a wood from the general. Who set up that terrain? Oops, I did. Close though, I was furiously trying to backpedal vs the knights while trying to get my cavalry into action vs the LH on the other flank and nearly managed to pull back before my General and Cav chucked in the towel.

What was I thinking? Separating my general from the elephant + horde? Funnily enough I realised my mistake on my first turn.


Failure to kill the LH was costly- outflanked by knights? RUN!


Too slow! My general and a couple of cav just bit the dust. Looks like Parthia gets to keep its homeland this time round.

Game 2: 5-3 vs Andre (II/48 Methridatic).
His chariot looked dangerous so I charged it with my genral and 2 Cav and kill it. I managed to squeeze a knight through a gap (70% chance of me sdying accoridng to Andre... but they didn't) and exploit the gap. Once the battlelines were fractures my mobility helped, although nellie did fall prey to a genral + pike combo.


Only 1 photos but as you can see much more freewheeling. The knight is just getting through the gap and about to charge off in search of baggage! Didn't quite make it in time though.

Game 3: 4-4 loss to Gary (Middle Imperial Romans).
He defended and suckered me in with an a artillery piece in a BuA so I lined up 5 elements to deal with it- only for him to swap in blades- crap. i lost a horde before I could pull back the res tof my forces but that emant nellie could switch flanks and eventually crush the blade to death and captured the camp for some bonus points. Across the table were to woods full of auxillia. Eventually I charged, taking out the artillery piece in the gap but lost a cavalry element to an auxiliia before I could pull back. This allowed Gary the opening he was looking for and his knights, blades and auxillia came out, chopped up a horde and cavalry to take them game. Gary set up the perfect defensive position and I lacked bad going troops to deal with it. I could have played more defensively and for a draw but where is the fun in that? I got 2 extra points of capturing his camp.


How not to attack a BuA- the artillery piece is about to be swapped for a blade. Runaway!


The trap is sprung. the artillery had been between the two woods but I had managed to attack but could not quite pull back enough. An Auxilla in the wood was able to double my cavalry and then then lill a horde on my right flank to take the game. You can however see my LH and knight at the top of the picture awaiting enough pips to to to get behind the line.

Game 4: vs Tim 1-4 (Trojans)
What can I say Tim (another TAG player) always beats me! I missed a chance to close the door on his general after killing a cavalry early (by only rolling a 1 when 2 for pips would have done it). Tim quickly sealed off that opportunity and in the eventual mass combat he chopped up my hordes and a couple of Cav for the win. Talk about a game of if only. Twice I failed to kill an auxilia (once with the door closed and only needing a 2 to do it) and "Fearless Nellie" twice failed to kill a single spear with her quick kill ability. If only he'd done a littorial landing!


Early manoeuvrings vs Tim. I managed to kill the far left chariot but failed to capitalise to take out the then exposed general and then when the lines met and push came to shove his troops shoved harder!

Game 5: 3-5 vs Dave (Patrician Romans)
Another Timaru player- yep us Timaru players were in a dog fight for wooden spoon honours. Again a close game but in the end the dice went Dave's way. He closed down the battlefield by good terrain palcement and had lots of bad going troops. I managed to kill a couple of LH to open a gap but he also killed a couple of elements. It all went horribly wrong for me when he recoiled a knight element into the rear of one of my cavalry (which had just killed a LH the previous turn and was not trying to buttocks of death him!) and then his auxillia both doubled my hordes and killed them! Oh the humiliation!


Dave's favourtie terrain type? Crossroads!


This should be a doddle!

Lessons Learned?
1 Hordes: Going into the comp I was not sure how to use (or should that be where to hide) the horde or how effective they'd be- in the last couple of games I used them in the front line and they got cut to pieces. I really needed a couple of troops capable of going into bad going and these guys just weren't able to.

2. Horde + elephant- 3 of my elements took 2 pips to move and I knew this was going to cause problems at times. I tried to keeping them together and separating them but not really effectively. In future I'll have the elephant supported by horde on one flank and maybe keep one as a garrsion troop. Maybe a central anchor for my army to maneuver round? I tried that, it didn't work.

3. Cav + LH- paper tigers whose mobility was curtailed by terrain more often than not so couldn't exploit the movement enough. They'd be much more effective on 30" square boards.

4. Heavy hitters: Cav General, knight, elephant. My plan was to make 3 battle groups (2x cav + general, 2x Cav + kn, 1x Cav + elephant & possibly horde). On reflection, this failed miserably. In future I intend to make a single battlegroup of my heavy hitters (Gen-Kn- Ele) with each end of the line supported by 2 elements of cav (on behind the other to start) and try to win the battle in the centre.

Infantry: This is the area I posibly struggled most. 2x Hordes, Psiloi, Auxillia. I was never able to get the auxillia and psiloi operating closely together enough or was outnumbered by opposing bad going troops so they were unable to win the bad going battle. I will need to continue to work on this but the horde were a real liability anywhere near bad going so will keep them well away.

Overall- was a very different army to the auxillia heavy ones I have been favouring lately, and I have yet ot get to grips with it, but have a few more ideas to try and see if I can make it work better than it has so far. We'll see.

I am seriously tempted to give it another crack at TAGCON next month and am sure I can make them work a bit better than I did. However, I am considering the Alans as a knight + LH heavy version for that too as the Alans 2x blades are capable of going into bad going and more effective outside it- 4x knights & 2x blades backed up by 5x LH and a single psiloi is rather tempting...

Craig

DBA Battle Report- Numidians

I haven't managed to do much painting this week as I was in Wellington for work for a couple of days but I did manage to paint my first couple of stands of 28mm Numidians and also get 3 games of DBA in with the 15mm Numidians at TAG.

I was really pleased with the way they played. Light, fluffy and annoying best describes them (IMO). I managed 2 wins out of 3 games and two of the games came down to the wire and could have gone either way. The one thing I do need to learn is how to use my light horse more effectively. I tend to be rash throwing at least one or two down a flank early to go after the camp but more often than not they tend to die or be ZoCed by my opponents. They tend to do much better when I keep them back threatening to do flank moves! I must learn to curb my impetuous nature on the gaming table.

Overall the army, although to my mind not a powerhouse army, can provide a challenge to opponents as the mobility means I can quickly react to changing situation so I think they will be the force I take the the CHCH gaming comp.

Game 1: 4-1 vs Mark (Patrician Romans) I took photos of this one- see below

Game 2: 3-5 vs Dave (Ostrogoths? 2x LH, 6x bow and 4x knights)
I killed the enemy general and was 3-3 but failed to kill a second unit (of flanked bow) needed to win the game and the next turn the vengeful Romans cut a couple of elements to pieces to take the victory-a great game though.

Game 3: 4-3 vs Stephen- (Mid Imperial Romans)
Another hard fought game as I sought to match up my elephant with his cavalry while avoiding his blades. I was controlling things quite nicely until the last couple of turns when his his blades got into contact with some of my auxillia and started hacking through them and almost won the game for him!

The First Battle vs Mark's Patrician Romans

The enemy general is one of the central knights.

















Result: 4-1 to the Numidians.

DBA Battle of Balaclavus

Some post game comments from the Dave B who was good enough to organise the carnage for us:

Roman Mark as the Roman left flank commander was unlucky to throw a "1" on his first pip die, making it almost impossible to face off the British Light cavalry swarming him. He tried, but he would have been better to abandon the wagons (loaded catapults) and instead tried to reform his cavalry further back. Fighting where he did eventually he was swamped by both Craig and Steve. I think all the trash talk between Mark and Craig went to Mark's head!!

Brit Steve had a slow moving british force but still managed to get in contact with Mark's left flank and Ian's right flank when Ian moved across the valley to attack. He was also given the town force which though it suffered from long range artillery firing was posing a real threat on the Roman's extreme right flank at the end of the game.

Roman Ian, not being needed to hold the line against the chariots advanced across the valley to deal with Steve's force. It seemed fairly even there at the close of play.

Roman Tim as the right flank outpost did very well holding his hill strongpoint, as I never had enough pip dice (minimum of 4 needed) to attack him there. I was fortunate that he got concerned about his flank and deployed troops off the hill which enabled me to get on their flanks! and cruch them.
Roman Tony, easily held the chariots off with his artillery, but was somewhat shocked to find his artillery running out of ammo.
[I had always intended this as I had hesitated between having say 8 artillery and unlimited ammo in the main line OR as much artillery as People bought along but start reducing its ammo from Move 4 on. In the end we had 16 artillery in the main line (12 forward, 4 back), 2 artillry on right front, and one right rear, plus the 2 loaded up ones on left flank THAT HAD ALREADY RUN OUT OF AMMO (the subtle clue for the Brits that ammo wouldn't be unlimited!).

Tony also deployed the camp reserves to bolster up Mark's force to prevent it breaking.

Brit Craig Did well with his light cavalry against the Roman cavalry. Easily did the best of the Brits with his faster moving troops and his initial position part way up the board.

Brit Lewis Needs to replace his dice as they specialise in throwing 1s or 2s, which is a bit of a disadvantage in DBA. Followed his victory conditions well and was able to give Cardiganus a glorious honourable death!

If I was gaming it again I would vary the scenario from the Slingshot Article as follows:

1. Possibly swop the British Chariot Force and Light Cavalry around. This would enable the Light Cavalry with their extra move distance and march move ability to move up the valley quicker, and pose much more of a threat. Still maintain the rule that Cardigan can only die in a melee, not from shooting AND still keep a high morale break factor for charge up the valley (In our battle had to lose 8 out of 13 before a morale test!). It would make the battle for the Roman left flank using chariots possibly more interesting as the Brits wouldn't be able to march move into position, giving the Romans more time to react.

2. Possibly reduce the number of artillery shooting from the main force (16 may have been OTT, but it was at Lewis!). Alternatively redo the long range charts so that in the 5-12 range to get a kill, one has to double rather than as I had it beat by 3, but admittedly Lewis made it easy by throwing 1s or 2s.

Anyway it seemed to play well and everone got some fighting.

DBA Battle of Balaclavus

After the game being postponed for a week due to flooding the armies assembled for some Big Battle DBA madness- thanks to Dave for organising it. A few tweaks to the rules- such as 24" range for Roman artillery and each Celtic commander having their own individual goals, meant nobody knew what was going to happen.

The starting forces:

• Roman Right Flank Outpost- 8 Blades (incl Gen), 2 psiloi and 2 catapults
• Roman Right/Centre Force (Oliver)- 8 Blades, 2x Psiloi, 1x Cav (Gen), 2 x catapults
• Roman Centre (way down the valley) Heaps of artillery and Caesar(Blade Gen), 8 Blades, 2 Psiloi and 2 Cav
• Roman Left Flank Outpost 2 wagons (loaded up catapults), 4 Cav, Cav Gen, and a wee way away 6 Blades 2 Psiloi
  

• Raglanni Centre Reserve- Warband Gen, 6 WB, 4 Psiloi, 2 Lght Hrse
• Lord Cardiganus Centre- 12 chariots (incl Gen)
• Lucani Left Flank- 1 Ch (Gen), 10 Warbands, 4 x psiloi
• Nolano Right Flank- 1Ch (Gen), 6 Lght Hrse, 6 WB

Emergency Reserves- More Warbands and Psiloi.
So that's the basic briefing.


Start your engines!

The Chariot force starts to ride down the valley of death straight towards a dozen warmachines. My own cavalry and warband prepare to accomplish their own goal- taking out the baggage train.

Various Roman forces encamped (with enfilading artillery) on the hills.


One down, one to go. The first baggage train falls. Meanwhile the artillery is seriously disrupting the chariot force (there were special rules in play at longer ranges, standard artillery rues at close range)


My light horse, aided by Stephen's have destroyed the baggage and surrounded 2-3 elements of cavalry while the cowardly Roman general (Marcus Bradleyus) slips away to join his infantry.


Chariots spread out- and several are about to die- in front of the chariots are caltrops which are -1 to combat factor if fighting over them. Stephen's warband stoically march t0o the sounds of battle (at 2" per move they've a long, long way to walk!), while Ian's Romans have marched down the hill in search of glory.


Where did all the chariots go? Most went splat thanks to some woeful dice rolling from Lewis! About this point the Roman artillery ran out of ammo to keep things interesting.


Victory! Well kind of. After losing 8 out of 12 chariots the chariot command folds but not before teh general manages to destroy a single artillery piece, then turn tail and flee. The rest of the British forces call it a day (or in this case a night). The battle was still raging but alas it was time to pack up and head home as it was getting late.

My command managed to get 1st on the British side for destroying 4 Cavalry, a blade and 2 baggage for 10 victory points, Stephen's horde were a close second with 8.


Notes
A great game played between 8 players with lots of carnage on both sides. Next time I think there will be slightly less artillery!

Lots of fun but the "geometry wars" aspect of DBA was once again apparent at times and, to me at least, this aspect of the rules is a real turn off. Micro measuring angles to put elements into zones of control/or so that they can't attack units is, for me, the rules main issue. Micro managing angles is not what ancient warfare should be about but it is a major aspect of DBA and some of the manovres this creates does make one raise their eyebrows in disbelief! So I am interested to see what changes the new version of DBA, rumoured to be in the wind, makes to reduce this aspect of the game.

Craig